Hatred on Scotland's Streets

Fuelling hatred against British Muslims, a mob of far-rightists and football hooligans are planning a massive anti-Islam march in Scotland’s second largest city of Edinburgh next week.

"If the march does go ahead, it's quite worrying that these types of views would be given a platform," Nina Giles, the director of Edinburgh & Lothians Racial Equality Council, told the Scotland on Sunday on February 14.

"Any individual that holds that kind of hatred towards any group is not healthy."

Balaclava-clad supporters of the self-styled Scottish Defense League (SDL) will march across Edinburgh on Saturday, February 20, against Muslim presence in the city.

The SDL is an off-shoot of the English Defense League (EDL), a far-right group whose stated aim is to oppose the spread of Islam and Shari`ah in Britain.

Embracing the language of far-right, the group draws support from mainly people with a background of football violence.

Playing anti-Muslim rhetoric, the SDL displays clothes and badges emblazoned with slogans such as "Ban the Burqa" and "No Surrender".

Another badge available over the internet says "Asylum – Don't Unpack You're Going Back".

A similar march by the group in Glasgow in November ended in violence when SDL supporters clashed with anti-racism marchers.

Scotland is home to more than 500,000 Muslims, making up less than one percent of the population.

Muslims are the second largest religious group in Scotland, which has thirty mosques.

Fascists

Many Scots liken the SDL to the openly fascist British National Party (BNP), which is notorious for anti-Islam rhetoric.

"To the BNP, to the Scottish Defence League, to the English Defence League, to any racist defence league, you are not welcome in Glasgow," said Deputy First Minister Nicolas Sturgeon.

"You are not welcome anywhere in Scotland."

The BNP, a far-right and whites-only political party, is notorious for attacks against immigrants and British Muslims, estimated at nearly two millions.

The EDL is also playing anti-Muslim rhetoric to draw support in Britain, leaving Muslims at the focus of unprovoked attacks by rightists.

In the worst incident, some Asian students were assaulted by a mob of white and black youths in central London using metal poles, bricks and sticks.

Three people – two students and a passer-by who tried to intervene – were stabbed.

Anti-fascist groups are already working hard to undermine the planned Edinburgh march by the SDL.

Edinburgh Anti-Fascist Alliance has written to pubs in the city to ban the SDL from using their premises.

Football grounds have also been asked to shun the group.

Posters reading "Nazis not welcome here" were distributed in the city by the United Against Fascism group.

"It is time to stand up for multicultural Scotland," said a spokesman.

Nigeria Sued for Boko Haram Killings

The Nigerian government is being sued for the extrajudicial killings of unarmed civilians after the Boko Haram sectarian clash in the northeastern states of Bauchi and Borno last August.

"They killed our innocent father on unfounded suspicion that he sponsored the sect," Alhaji Babakura Fugu, the slain man's eldest son, told IslamOnline.net in a telephone interview.

He said his father Baba Fugu, the father-in-law of Boko Haram leader Muhammed Yusuf, had earlier on told authorities of Yusuf’s misbehavior and later voluntarily reported to the police station after being accused of bankrolling the group.

"But rather than act on the information my father gave them, they ended killing him," he charged.

"They not only killed my father, they also destroyed our expansive family house, rendering our mothers homeless," he added.

"This is cruel, and we won’t let it go unchallenged. That is why we approaching the court as defender of the weak."

The plaintiffs want the court to compel the police to exhume the body of Baba Fugu Muhammed for clinical examination.

"We insist that they must exhume the remains of our father for the court to determine whether extrajudicial killings took place or not," said Babakura.

The body is believed to be among those buried in a mass grave.

Borno State High Court Number 3 has adjourned the case until March 2 for hearing.

Boko Haram, a militant group opposed to anything modeled after the West, had gone on rampage in three north-western states attacking police stations and other facilities.

A massive security operation resulted in the killing of hundreds of militants including their leader Yusuf.

Complicit

The lawsuit names key officials, including President Umaru Yar’Adua, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ogbonna Onovo and Borno Governor Ali Modu Sheriff, as accused.

The country’s former Attorney General, Michael Aondoakaa, is also on the accused list.

The plaintiffs accuse them of complicity in the extrajudicial killing of their father and destruction of their properties.

Barrister Anayo Adide, counsel to the litigant, explained that the president is sued for issuing the order that led to the alleged extrajudicial killing of people in the state, while the state government ordered the destruction of the Fugu family compound.

"The IGP is considered a major culprit for allowing police to shoot their father alongside many others in what was extrajudicial murder that is punishable under our law," he told IOL.

"The federal and state attorneys general were dragged into the suit for allowing the breach of constitutional rights of the people during the Boko Haram scuffle."

Presiding judge in the case, Justice Mohammed Mustapha, has granted the plaintiffs an ex parte motion to serve all the accused the notice of summon.

The government and the police confirmed knowledge of the case, but declined further comment.

The case came as Al-Jazeera released a video showing unarmed civilians being lined up on the ground and shot from the back by armed individuals in the presence of security forces heard talking about sharing valuables found on the dead.

It also showed Boko Haram leader Yusuf alive and well while calmly responding to the questions of his interrogators, before showing his bullet-ridden body.

Security agencies and Borno government declined comment on the video when called by IOL correspondent.

Borno Police Commissioner, Ibrahim Abdu, said the Boko Haram incident "is a national security matter" and has since been taken over by the national police command.

The Nigerian Police Public Relations Unit also declined comment.

US Eyes Iran “Regime Change”

Rallying its allies against Iran, the Obama administration is pressing for “very tough” sanctions against the Islamic Republic that could bring about regime change.

"We're... going through the UN this month to present sanctions," James Jones, President Barack Obama’s national security advisor, told Fox News Sunday, February 14.

Iran and the West are at loggerheads over a UN-sponsored deal, under which Iran would send about 70 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France in exchange for more highly enriched fuel to produce medical isotopes.

The West demands Iran to accept the deal, while Tehran insists that the low-enriched uranium swap should happen on stages.

Jones said that the new sanctions on Iran could bring “regime change” in the country.

"We know that internally there is a very serious problem,” he said, referring to the political turmoil in Iran over the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year.

“We're about to add to that regime's difficulties by engineering, participating in very tough sanctions, which we support.

"Not mild sanctions. These are very tough sanctions. A combination of those things could well trigger a regime change -- it's possible."

The West accuses Tehran of developing a secret nuclear weapons program.

Iran insists that its nuclear program only aims at procuring power to feed an increasing local consumption.

Greater Costs

A similar message was echoed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, warning Iran of “greater costs” over its nuclear program.

"Iran leaves the international community little choice but to impose greater costs for its provocative steps," Clinton said in a speech at the US-Islamic World forum in Doha.

"Together, we are encouraging Iran to reconsider its dangerous policy decisions," she said.

"We are now working actively with our regional and international partners, in the context of our dual track approach, to prepare and implement new measures to convince Iran to change its course."

Washington has been working to shore up the support of Iran allies, Russia and China, to slap sanctions on Tehran .

"We have the support of everyone from Russia to Europe,” US Vice President Joe Biden told NBC's "Meet the Press" from Canada, where he was attending the Olympics.

“And I believe we'll get the support of China to continue to impose sanctions on Iran to isolate them, to make it clear that in fact they cannot move forward."

Clinton is due to visit Saudi Arabia for talks with King Abdullah on Monday.

US officials have hinted that one way Saudi Arabia could help diplomatically by guaranteeing China it would meet its oil requirements, a step that might ease Beijing's reluctance to impose further sanctions on Iran.

China, which wields a veto on the Security Council, has lucrative commercial relationships with Iran and, along with Russia, has worked to dilute previous sanctions resolutions.

"We need to work on China a little bit more," Jones, the national security adviser, said.

"But China wants to be seen as a responsible global influence in this. On this issue, they can't, they cannot be nonsupportive."

Torture Brings MI5 Into Storm

Britain’s intelligence service MI5 is in the eye of storm over revelations that its current chief Jonathan Evans was the senior spy involved in the torture of several Britons in foreign jails.

“He is probably the one responsible for the policy,” lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, Smith told The Times on Sunday, February 14.

“It’s a criminal offence to tell an agent in the field to ignore allegations of torture.”

Evans was the director of MI5’s counter-terrorism branch between 2001 and 2005.

While in his post, allegations had surfaced that several people were reportedly tortured in foreign prisons with collusion of the MI5.

“Evans was probably in the frame” said Smith, who represents former Guantanamo detainee Benyam Mohamed.

Mohamed, who was born in Ethiopia but held British residency, was released from Guantanamo in 2009 after five years in the notorious detention camp.

He insisted British authorities knew he was tortured by US jailers and sued the government to release a secret intelligence summary proving the allegation.

A British court on Wednesday ordered the government to disclose the secret intelligence summary about the torture and abuses by American jailers in Guantanamo.

At least 13 people are suing the government for damages over the MI5’s complicity in their torture.

The involvement of British officials in torture is outlawed by the 1988 Criminal Justice Act. It carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

“Enemies”

Human rights groups accused the MI5 chief of considering critics as “enemies of the state”.

“The implication is that all of us are enemies of the state — just for trying to find out what happened,” Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said.

Last week, Evans severely criticized claims of an MI5 torture collusion, saying they were “the precise opposite of the truth”.

But rights groups hit back at the chief spy.

“Jonathan Evans has an understandable interest in defending the honor of his service,” said Chakrabarti.

“But given his particular counter-terror responsibilities at the crucial time, few will regard him as a neutral commentator.”

Rights groups have repeatedly accused London of involvement in the infamous US rendition flights taking terror suspects to countries where they face torture.

For years the government repeatedly denied its territories had ever been used by the CIA for such purposes.

Only last year, Britain admitted for the first time, in an apology to the House of Commons, that the CIA did use British soil in rendition flights.